Engineering Session
Atsushi Suzuki, Orion Breweries, Ltd. 2-2-1 Agarie, Nago-city, Okinawa, Japan
ABSTRACT: A “small brewing plant” for product development,
which could dramatically reduce the initial cost, was created. The cost
saving was mostly achieved by utilizing recycled products for most the
equipment. Although the estimated cost of the 200 L-scale plant we
originally planned to install was 250 million yen, we succeeded in
reducing the total cost by 99% by downsizing the volume by 90%, using
recycled products, and assembling them on their own. Furthermore, the
smaller plant enabled us to produce five times as much product at once
than the previous plant. The chemical compositions of wort, immature
beer, and filtered beer produced in this small plant according to the
common brewing recipe were almost identical to those made in our main
brewery. Furthermore, none of 10 inspectors could distinguish the brews
produced in the small plant from those in the preceding ones. Six kinds
of products developed using this small plant have been launched, and all
of them are produced appropriately and have sold well. This report
provides information to brewers who may be planning to purchase a
low-cost small plant for product development. One example of the
component of the small plant is obsolescent stainless kegs, which are
reused as fermentation tanks. The stainless kegs satisfy almost all the
primary requirements for fermentation tanks: 1) high sealing
performance, 2) baro tolerance, 3) autoclavability, 4) ease of putting
in and taking out liquids while maintaining sterility, and 5) ease of
increasing the number of tanks.
Atsushi Suzuki received a
master’s degree in science from Ryukyu University in Okinawa, Japan. He
began employment with Orion Breweries in 2004 as a manufacturer in the
Product Development section. Since 2007, he has functioned as manager of
new product development.
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